At the core of our creative services agency, The Gathery, is the experiential practice we are most known for. For nearly the entirety of my and Luigi’s 20-year career, events - which were later renamed experiential - would define us. When Covid-19 hit our industry and we watched virtually all of our experiential business evaporate, we asked ourselves like everyone else: “what’s our pivot?” We pulled out the unused ideas folder in search of a product we could create without touch. Would we finally make VR events a thing? Could we do concerts on Zoom? What about leveraging the reach of our social influencers to push product in the interim? The problem with everything we came up with was that it lacked – well, experience.
We entered the world of experiential marketing because we believe in the transformative power of experience. That means, our work must be IRL. We need to stand in front of the art. We need to be in the audience in the dark watching what happens on stage. We have to imbibe the scent in the air and commune with others making similar discoveries around us. Experience is a part of humanity and trying to create digital simulacra felt like a phony and shallow endeavor for us.
So, the Gathery is currently focusing on a few new endeavors as we wait this storm out, and none of them abandon our core belief that experience is essential. That means, we will bring our signature style of story-led experience to the guest until they can once again come together.
Photo: Big Breakfast Studio
We thought the reader would enjoy some of our thinking for one such project for HBO Max that was a runaway success. Our advice – stick to what you know. Do what you do best. And make it work for this time period knowing that this too, shall pass.
Originally imagined as a premiere event for Season 3 of Search Party on HBO’s newly minted streaming service HBO Max, our activation quickly pivoted as New York City and the country at large felt the impact of COVID-19 during shutdown.
Photo: Big Breakfast Studio
Reimagining the launch event to an immersive experience-in-a-box, we took a single part of the story – namely the main character Dory’s “Mystery Map” where she uses red thread to connect the dots on a murder. Of course (spoiler alert!), she gets it all wrong and that red thread becomes a hilarious mess as the show continues on.
Our custom Mystery Kits were designed as an evidence box and filled with products curated from local-businesses of the show’s neighborhood, Brooklyn, providing everything recipients needed to throw the ultimate viewing party in the safety of their homes. The kits were sent to 200 members of the press, influencers, cast and crew, and celebrity fans of the show. Within the kits themselves, was a Mystery Map of Brooklyn that we designed and curated—featuring local favorites frequented on the show, neighborhood spots to visit, and participating partners. As a Brooklyn-based agency, we strive to support the creative community around us—now more than ever, we aimed our support at creating positive impact on the local businesses we admire during these trying economic times while providing context for the box and show itself.
Photo: Big Breakfast Studio
To amplify the program, the Mystery Map lives digitally on the show’s website and unlocks exclusive offers and promotions to those same featured businesses. Messaging was amplified through social, with ten influencers curated by The Gathery and our partners at social media agency Billion Dollar Boy posting and sharing how they threw the ultimate viewing party at home which generated a sensational amount of engagement and buzz around the show’s season launch far exceeding our client’s expectations.
In fact, we had Oscar-winning directors, Hollywood heavyweights and superstar actors from the broader Warner Media world request reprints of these unique experiential boxes after the promotion was over. The concept proved that a well-thought out immersive experience does indeed fit inside the box.
